Using Adapters with Canon EOS

[rrcphoto]

Over the past 5 months I've done allot of work (another term for playing) using

Contax, Olympus and M42 adapters with my Canon 20D, and I wanted to pass on

some lessons learned.

In hindsight, I would have loved to have this information, so I feel it's

worthy to post. (IMHO)

 

When an adapter QA is critical.....

 

When your lens is wide open and also in reverse proportion to the focal length.

The wider the lens, and the less stopped down you want the lens to be at it's

best, the more quality you'll need to demand from your adapter. So if you're

using the 28mm 2.8 Zeiss Distagon at F8, you can get away with a less expensive

adapter. but the fall off at F2.8 is dramatic. Richard's general rule: the

wider the lens the more proportionally you'll have to spend on the adapter.

Richard's second rule: never trust someone on ebay saying infinity is

guaranteed. Check.

 

Olympus to EOS Adapters....

 

For olympus adapters, don't get the ones from china or japan. Most of them are

simply not that very good. A guy named phototools24 in ebay sells some good OM

Adapters - however, they do not have a stop pin. Easiest fix: take a pair of

needle nose adapters, and carefully bend down the flange on where the stop pin

atypically is, that's how fotodoix does their stop pin, and it works fine.

Great adapter, and no problems at all. The cheaper ebay ones - no end of

headaches. Someone needs info on how this is done, email me - it's easy,

doesn't hurt a thing.

 

M42 to EOS Adapters....

 

This really depends on what m42 mount lenses you want to put on your canon.

Personally, I liked the one I got from docaibolit on ebay. The element to be

careful of is whether or not your M42 adapter has a flange to trigger the

aperture pin. Most don't. This can cause some issues with the pentax takumars

(I love those lenses). docaibolit's adapters are built out of solid hewn metal,

rather inexpensive because you only need one m42 adapter for all your lenses

and works great.

 

Contax to EOS adapters....

 

With these, it depends on how and what you want to get. Keeping in mind the

first point on the precision. Buy two if they are cheap, and offer a discount

on shipping for second item. Chances are one will be in good tolerance for

infinity focus, but never guaranteed. It really is a crapshoot. I have 3

adapters here some work, some don't. Some I use as decorations in my fishtank.

roxsen out of hong kong is average quality, the cool thing is the little

leather bag the adapter comes in, but their build quality is average. Again,

for > 50mm focal length, the precision isn't as necessary, for 35mm and under.

Get a good one, your 13x19" blowups will appreciate it. I've gotten one

fotodiox that sits on my 28mm contax lens, and I use a roxen one that is in

acceptable pixel peeping quality on my 35-70 where it's not as necessary.

swapping the adapters - I couldn't tell the difference unless I stopped down on

the 35-70, which I don't do because F8 is it's sweet spot and it's darn well

nearly duct taped at that.

 

Leica to EOS...

 

Well, no leica glass is cheap. So I did no fooling around here, just bought the

Fotodoix adapter, and it works like a charm.

 

Summary on Adapters....

 

Now of course there are the expensive adapters, but personally, I could never

justify purchasing an adapter worth $160 US (one for each contax, olympus

lens). I'd rather purchase the glass ;) .. the best overall adapter that is

somewhat economical that I've found is fotodoix. I use their adapters for both

Leica and Contax - nice adapters, solid feel, and positive "snaps" when

mounting the lenses.

 

Okay, I really don't want to spend that much money on an adapter. How else can

I do this....

 

Get a precision digital micrometer from ebay (80 bucks or so) and set the darn

adapters yourself to the correct registration distance. That's all they do. Do

it yourself. You can save yourself alot of money that way as well.

 

About using adapters.....

 

What's the big fuss over AF? Here comes the flames...but really. Half the time

I have to turn my 24-70 F2.8 L off of AF anyways and manually control it. I

still use it of course, at times you do need that great USM speed of AF. But

allot of times, especially with landscape - not necessary and at times a

complete distraction.

 

Can you live without AF? well, I've seen some pretty amazing photos taken using

film cameras before the term AF ever came into existence. Why would today's

cameras be useless without it? Granted for action, you need / should use AF.

But again, what did everyone do before AF came around? Someone took some photos

I know they did!

 

Stop down mode - added benefits. Very easy to see depth of field changes as you

flip the aperture ring (yes, please don't tell me about the DEP button, I know

it's there), but there's something that seems in my mind to be so much easier

to adjust the aperture and automatically see the depth of field change in the

view finder. Also great for fine tuning hyperfocal distance as well.

 

Is it worth using Contax, or other lenses on a Canon...?

 

I have a good sample 24-70 L, and yes, at times it does take some great

pictures - however, there's just a certain sharpness, depth of field, and

contrast (not to mention the lack of blue fringing around heavily contrasted

tree branches) that Zeiss has over Canon glass. Weight difference? no one

brings that up - but that's a large reason as well.

 

The bad points...

 

Pain in the butt part of stopped down mode. Shooting at F22 and trying to find

the horizon. So you do this for focus and horizon, focus while fully open on

your closest focus point, stop down until your entire object is in plain of

focus. No different than a manual camera.

 

Other tips...

 

Leave your camera on Av mode, and use exposure compensation to adjust manually

for lens / metering variations. I have noticed a difference in metering from

Zeiss to Tokina to Leica using the same subject matter.

 

Other almost necessary to have items...

 

View screen - katz eye optics is what I use on my 20D .. love it.

 

Right Angle View finder. Brightens the screen and when working with critical

macro or focusing, much easier to zoom in to 2.5 times and nail a very precise

focus.

 

Cheers, and I hope this info helps someone out.

--Richard

 

 

[neild]

A lot of info here, thanks for posting!

 

I will, however, say that I use Japanese EOS/OM adapters and they are spot-on perfect in my opinion. Another thing I would say is that wide-angle lenses give light fall-off when used wide-open anyway. Have you compared these lenses' performance on cameras which require no adapter (using slide film if it's not digital)? I think you'll find that they still "vignette" without the adapter...

 

I prefer to use manual mode to fine-tune exposure. I'll shoot in Av mode, and if it's not quite right then I'll change to M mode (remembering the shutter speed just used) and adjust things from there. I do agree with you that having an aperture ring is much more convenient that adjusting it via the camera.

[rrcphoto]

Hey Neil,

 

Actually I wasn't terribly concerned about vingetting, because like you figured that happened regardless of adapter. Has more to do with light falloff near the edge of the image circle than the adapter. But what I found was swapping out adapters in a test scenario using the 28mm 2.8 distagon was the delta level of sharpness decreased with the F stop between cheap / good adapters. By F8, a good adapter and a poor adapter it was very hard to tell the difference, even with an excessive amount of pixel peeping. However, the lens wide open, the variations in adapters was noticable even on a 8x10 sized print.

 

That test was also done with a 35-70 Vario Sonnar, and the same affect was noticed, but as the focal distance was moved up, the delta affect became less. Thus the conclusion that your aperature and lens focal determines on how accurate your lens adapter has to be.

 

The OM adapters I got from overseas, alot of them were "off balanced", ie: one of the flanges was out of registration distance to the other two and also one that binded way too tightly into the OM bayonet mount (to the point of lens damage fear started to occur - thus the QA issue).

 

Of course, because of QA, etc - it's your mileage may vary.

 

Cheers!

 

Richard

[andrew_fildes3]

Good all round - can't disagree but there are a few additional points.<br>

Generally, there is a problem with cheap alloy adapters - I've used cheap heavy chromed

brass adapters from Shanghai off ebay and they are usually pretty good.<br>

With a 10D (mine has a Haoda split screen - cruder than the Katz Eye but effective).

You will lose the auto focussing confirmation points as, unlike a 20D and I assume a 30D,

the squares are on the focussing screen rather than a seperate screen. However, if you

select single point focus, you still get a red flash on the 'split' as well as the green spot

indicator below the frame. Why is this important if you are using a manual lens - it isn't,

unless it's your walking around AF body as well! I'd expected to lose this focus

confirmation so I was pleased to see the flash. <br>

M42 adapters - you suggest getting the one with a flange to depress the auto pin. Fine

except that all my M42 lenses have a man/auto switch anyway and I found that I couldn't

use the late Pentax lenses designed for the open-aperture metering bodies like the

Spotmatic ES - there is a heavy meter tab that fouls the flange. A simple ring may be more

useful unless you have very old 42mm screw lenses that lack a manual switch.

[jorge_garcia1]

As an aid to manual focusing you have not mentioned the focus confirmation chips sold alone or glued to an adapter.

Regards

[rrcphoto]

Andrew - I never knew that the 10d would show a focus confirmation point with MF lenses. Go figure, everyone just seemed to say, no focus confirmation, get over it :)

 

Good points on the adapters everyone. Haven't seen any "why not just use canon glass" comments yet *grin*

 

Jorge, I wasn't brave enough to try the hacked focus confirmation stuff out. To be honest, the only things I'd like to see those for, is if I cound set the registration up so that the EXIF information would give me an idea of the lens I was using, which the ones I've seen on ebay just make it all out to be a 24-70 zoom I think.

 

Every now and then I look at a raw, and go..hmm. was that the 17mm tokina or the 19mm leica on that shot?

 

If that was avalable, then I'd buy a bunch and set them up for the various lenses so I could tell if a lens was operating poorly in certain conditions. Usually when I find a composition that I like, all the various lenses come out to play :) So it would be nice to know afterwards.

[jorge_garcia1]

Sorry but I think today chips-lens-emulators are only an aid to manual focusing.

 

If you want the exif data you have to get in touch with the chip maker so he can program what you want.

 

One of them put "1.4" instead of "2.8" as max aperture because one buyer asked him to do so.

 

I am afraid that the price would not be the same ...

 

Tell us if you go that way

 

Regards

[ron c sunshine coast,qld,a]

Thanks for the writeup Richard!

 

<BR>Interesting info on the customisable focus confirmation chips too.I knew about these but didn't know they could be set for very large aperture lenses.I'll have to get one for my EOS modded FD 85/1.2L i think :):)

 

<P>Richard ,how do you do this? You make no comment on how you actually change the reg distance -<BR>

"Get a precision digital micrometer from ebay (80 bucks or so) and set the darn adapters yourself to the correct registration distance. That's all they do. Do it yourself. You can save yourself alot of money that way as well.

<P>I've heard of some users increasing the effective adapter thickness by adding a shim (usually with M42 adapters because most are made too thin to be on the safe side).If you mean something about reducing the thickness because the lens can't achieve infinity...how do you do that? ? ( a lathe would be nice)

[rrcphoto]

lathe would be cool :)

 

actually what I've seen at least from the least expensive contact adapters, is that there are two segments of metal. Post manufacturering bends these apart to hit the correct registration distance. The theory being that to make sure that these a) stay correct and b) are the correct registration distance apart.

 

Thus the micrometer - which combined with a small flat screwdriver / pliers can insure that these tabs dont become closer over time, and actually stay at the registration delta apart - and that all three are the same distance apart.

 

More expensive adapters are machined to the correct distance (my fotodoix adapter is that way). However, it's might be a less inexpensive way of getting alot of adapters working correctly if you have a few contaxt / olypmus lenses floating around begging to be shot on a canon camera :)

 

M42 adapters, because it's usually solid, machining would have to be done to change the registration distance, so that wouldn't apply to this case.

[brucecyr]

While the Roxsen Nikon to EOS adapter is functional, with a caveat, it is not up to heavy or sustained use in my experience.

 

First, the caveat: Even when new, mine permitted about 1 degree of rotation between the camera and the lens due to the gaps between the locking tab and its slot. The rotation per se is not a problem for me, but this degree of slack does not bode well for long term use -- I've no doubt it will increase in time.

 

Secondly and more seriously, after literally a month of daily use, 2-3 hours per day, mounting a Sigma 600mm mirror lens (must be 2lbs or so) to an EOS 350D body, the four tiny screws holding the, um, mounting plate to the main body of the adapter, worked loose and the lens nearly separated from the body!

 

What I suggest, if you use the adapter regularly, is tightening the four screws at the first sign of slack play. Since I continue to use this lens/body combination nearly daily, I tighten them at least weekly. BTW, don't drive them as hard as you can, but rather just snug them up and then give them maybe another quarter turn to prevent stripping the threads.

 

I thought about lock tight, of course, but I ran into an odd quirk. Ordinary hardware store lock tight, i.e., the "blue" type (which, incidentally, comes in a red tube and red packaging in my area!), isn't worth the trouble of application. The "red" automotive type (which, incidentally, comes in a blue tube and blue packaging in my area! Don't tell me senility is purely a personal function when there are these sorts of institutional and societal correlates!), seems to work a little better but really isn't a permanent solution because the screws are so tiny compared to the force exerted by the Sigma lens that they work loose after a week to 10 days instead of two to three days for the blue stuff.

 

The dilemma is whether it's worth putting up with this fuss with a total outlay of $30 or coughing up $175 for the CameraQuest.com adapter, which, at least for the Pentax K to EOS model, is well worth the expense. Or perhaps the even more expensive Novoflex model.

 

For now I continue using the Roxsen unit simply because I'm unsure how long I will be using my second-hand Sigma -- I got it from KEH.com with an "excellent" rating, but it had a few small spots of fungus on the rear mirror. Who knows, maybe my retirement plan will pan out and I will win the lottery and buy a set of lenses that would cost the equivalent of a year or two college at a middling school :-)

 

Bruce

[brucecyr]

As a follow-up to my report on the Roxsen Nikon-to-EOS adapter, I note that the Fotodoix version of this adapter appears to be identical except that its four little screws are black rather than silver. However, both adapters have the same crude machining marks on their inside diameters. Also, the net price to me was virtually identical for both, the vagaries of item/shipping/etc. allocations aside!

 

The CameraQuest.com Pentax K-to-EOS adapter appears to also allow a good bit of rotational freedom -- approximately 3-4 degrees in fact. However, the old Pentax f/4.5 500mm tele I'm using it on has so many degrees of freedom (it comes apart to insert 52mm filters, allows both the lens to be rotated within the tripod ring and the camera to be rotated 360 degrees -- plus the removable rear tube rotates a couple of degrees or more in any deviation from the longitudinal axis!) that it all seems to fit :-)

 

On a positive note, a Contax Planar T* 50mm f/1.7 lens I recently got on eBay included a superb Contax-to-EOS adapter putatively made by FredMiranda.Com-regular Son Minh Pham. This adapter ain't got an iota of slippage in any direction and allows perfect infinity focus! Based on this sample, I would highly recommend this adapter, which is reported by the lens seller to go for $125.

 

Bruce